Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Dec 5: Days after the Indian conglomerate announced the airline’s merger with Vistara, Air India, which is owned by the Tata group, revealed on Monday that it will lease 12 more Airbus and Boeing aircraft.
In addition to the thirty planes the airline leased earlier this year as part of its expansion ambitions, the new ones are scheduled to be introduced in the first half of 2023.
These planes will be used on short, medium, and long-haul international routes operated by Air India beginning in the first half of 2023. In addition to the thirty widebody aircraft that was leased earlier this year—including twenty-one Airbus A320, four Airbus A321 and five Boeing B777-200LR models—twelve additional aircraft will be leased.
The airline’s domestic and short- to medium-haul international routes will use the Airbus A320neo. First, Business, Premium Economy, and Economy will be offered on Air India’s B777-300 ER, which will be used to connect Indian metropolises with even more foreign locations.
The airline’s aggressive expansion plan has already seen the return to the skies of 19 previously grounded aircraft, with 9 more to come, while also increasing the leasing of both narrow- and wide-body aircraft. Air India has increased the number of flights between important domestic cities as part of the expansion and has also announced direct flights between major Indian cities and international locations like Doha, San Francisco, Vancouver, and Birmingham.
Additionally, Air India plans to launch direct flights from Mumbai to New York, Paris, and Frankfurt as well as from Delhi to important European cities like Milan, Vienna, and Copenhagen.
In order to build a larger full-service airline that will increase its position in both home and foreign markets, the Tata group is merging Air India with Vistara, its joint venture with Singapore Airlines (SIA).
